Talk:Roman Empire
Tosevite Rome. Should there be a category for this in the "World War", series? One of the viewpoint characters is an expert in Roman history, and she is later consulted by the Race to learn how Rome ruled difficult subjects in there empire. :"Monique the Turd knew a lot about Rome and was able to discuss it intelligently" isn't much of a justification for creating a section, especially not in an article that already has some perfectly workable and substantive information. Turtle Fan 13:30, October 11, 2011 (UTC) Rome in Videssos Cycle Rome is still a republic at the time the three cohorts are transported to Videssos. I think adding info on the republic to the OTL portion of this article would be appropriate and we needn't change the name since this is what people generally think of when they think of Julius Caesar. However, I'm not certain on either so am opening this for discussion (if any). I have been using the Ronam article for any references by the fantasy world characters and intend to expand it as needed for those purposes. ML4E (talk) 16:51, April 25, 2013 (UTC) :For the extremely limited role the Republic plays in the Turtledove canon, I think ML4E's approach is probably the best. Any article on the Republic would consist exclusively of: "Soldiers from the Republic went to Videssos"; "Atlantis modeled its government on the Republic"; and "the Federated Commonwealths of America modeled its government on the Republic." :(Obviously, if HT writes a story set in the Republic, we'll have to revisit the issue.) TR (talk) 21:51, April 25, 2013 (UTC)E In High Places "Technology in that alternate remained at a Bronze Age level in the late 21st Century" I thought Europe switched to Iron long before Rome was a thing.Eljuma (talk) 00:33, September 17, 2015 (UTC) :Alternate universes don't necessarily have to follow traditional AH rules. Turtle Fan (talk) 01:20, September 17, 2015 (UTC) ::Actually, I don't think the novel specified what level that particular alternate was at. I don't think we can say Bronze Age though. I think that was inferred incorrectly. TR (talk) 04:50, September 17, 2015 (UTC) Alternate Roman Empires I'm surprised HT hasn't done more with alternate Roman Empires. Gunpowder Empire was a serviceable story but left much unexplored, "Shock and Awe" is full of action and clever character writing but doesn't explore the consequences of its POD at all, and all his other Roman stories are set in OTL. I'd think that the Empire would be much more of a goldmine for him.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 07:02, August 3, 2016 (UTC) :Roman Empire AH is like the 3rd most common topic in AH (WWII and ACW are 1 and 2). Given that HT has played a great deal in the first two, I'm perfectly ok with him focusing on less well-trod territory. TR (talk) 15:59, August 3, 2016 (UTC) :You've also overlooked Agent of Byzantium. Turtle Fan (talk) 21:19, August 3, 2016 (UTC) :AoB diverges more than 100 years after the Western Roman Empire is already gone.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 06:11, August 4, 2016 (UTC) ::Yes, and? The Eastern Empire is a perfectly valid successor state. Turtle Fan (talk) 14:03, August 4, 2016 (UTC) ::Also, it looks like, with the overthrow of Phokas and no Islam, the Byzantines regained the Levant, retained Egypt and the rest of North Africa. Further, Constans II was successful in retaining and pushing back the Lombards so there is a fairly large Western Empire remaining within the Byzantine Empire's domain. Those are treated as poor relations with one story talking about the presumptive behavior by the Bishop of Rome. It may not be what people thing of when referring to the "Roman Empire" but it is a legitimate use of the term to describe the world of AoB. ML4E (talk) 17:12, August 4, 2016 (UTC) :::I still think of AoB as alternate Byzantium rather than alternate Rome. And I'm also surprised that HT hasn't done more with the Byzantine Empire either, since he claims it's so important to his academic life. One AH novel (which is bloody difficult to access), one OTL novel, and three or four short stories, one of which is a Scooby-Doo level mystery set in OTL. It just seems like HT should have put Byzantium on the proverbial map a bit more indelibly (preferably while leaving The Gap and Supervolcano unwritten).JonathanMarkoff (talk) 18:01, August 4, 2016 (UTC) ::::Bear in mind, he writes what editors will buy, not necessarily the areas of history he finds most interesting or important. ML4E (talk) 18:05, August 4, 2016 (UTC) ::::1. Alternate Byzantium versus Alternate Rome is a distinction without a difference. That's almost like saying TL-191 is not an alternate version of American history because the capital is moved to Philadelphia. ::::2. HT doesn't claim that Byzantium is important to his academic life; it is. It's what his doctorate is in. ::::3. AoB is not that hard to access. Download a Kindle app and you can start reading it this very evening. ::::4. There's also the entire Videssos universe. (Speaking of which, that's technically going to result in another AH version of Rome, if only because Caesar didn't get to witness Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo saving each other's lives.) ::::5. What ML4E said. Turtle Fan (talk) 23:28, August 4, 2016 (UTC)